Beijing plans national pipeline company

BEIJING: China’s state economic planner has revived a plan to create a national natural gas pipeline company, aiming to provide gas producers with better access to infrastructure to help increase take-up of the cleaner-burning fuel, two senior officials said.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) is working with state oil companies including China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and Sinopec Group on the proposal, the two officials familiar with the plan said.

The talks included what assets would be included in the company and how it would be run, they said.

The plan, first raised about five years ago, is part of Beijing’s proposed reforms to make the state-dominated oil and gas sector more efficient and follows a string of smaller steps over the past two years, including cutting down transportation costs and encouraging investment in gas storage.

“The NDRC is engaging a small group of company people to design a plan for creating the national pipeline company,” said one of the sources.

The NDRC did not immediately respond to request for comment.

The proposed national pipeline company is expected to oversee China’s trunk line projects such as the West-to-East pipelines operated by CNPC and Sinopec’s project linking gas fields in the southwestern province of Sichuan to the east coast.